Posts Tagged ‘central region’

Gaza terrorists launched a new long-range missile Tuesday night, fulfilling its vow to reach new targets in central regions, ‘farther than Israelis have ever believed could be hit.”

The Syrian-made M302 missile weighs 120 kilograms and has a range of approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers). Hamas proclaimed Wednesday morning to journalists that it currently has “dozens of these missiles” in its arsenals.

This past March, Israeli Navy Shayetet 13 commandos seized the Klos C vessel, sailing under the flag of Panama but owned by Iran. The vessel, which had set out from Iran and was heading for Sudan, was laden with M302 long-range missiles intended for Gaza terrorists, hidden in Iranian-labeled containers filled bags allegedly filled with “Portland cement.”

During each ‘quiet’ period Gaza terrorists manage to exponentially expand their arsenal, which currently also includes the locally-produced 80-kilometer range M75 and Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles, and medium-range Grad Katyusha missiles, along with the shorter-range Qassam rockets.

Tuesday night was for Muslims the 10th day of Ramadan – the date on the Islamic calendar which is the anniversary of the start of the Yom Kippur War.

Possibly to mark the event, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists fired repeated barrages of long-range missiles at Israel in an attempt to hit Rishon Lezion, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.

They failed, however, thanks to the Iron Dome anti-missile system which had been deployed in strategic locations throughout the country days earlier precisely to avert such an attack.

The IDF is meanwhile proceeding with its mobilization of reservists; a call up of 40,000 was approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Tuesday.

“We will not tolerate rocket fire against our cities and townships and therefore I ordered a significant broadening of Israel Defense Force operations against the terrorists of Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strips,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained in a statement to international media.

He added that Israelis needed to pull together and “show resilience because this operation could take time.”

In a departure from previous operations, a primary goal in Operation Protective Edge is the targeted assassination of Hamas leaders, who were warned repeatedly that if the rocket fire did not cease, Israel would put an end to it “permanently.”

Since January, Gaza terrorists have fired more than 450 rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians. Since June 12, at least 240 were launched at Israel by 9 am Wednesday morning.

Hamas had boasted in a video beamed to Israeli civilians that this time terrorist rocket fire would reach into Judea and Samaria and “all over Israel.

Indeed, Tuesday night for the first time missiles exploded over the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem, albeit intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. Missile fire also reached for the first time as far north as Binyamina, just south of the town of Zichron Ya’akov.

Security officials are also warning that as the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terrorist organization did at the start of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, it is likely that Hamas and Islamic Jihad will attempt ground attacks as well.

In fact, on Tuesday two Gaza terrorists attempted an amphibious infiltration at a southern Israeli kibbutz, Zikkim, but were caught and killed by IDF soldiers after a brief but fierce exchange of gunfire.

As Gaza terrorists rev up the missile machine and target cities in central Israel, and Israel ramps up its response in Operation Protective Edge, some residents were forced on Monday to make the run to their bomb shelters for the first time.

In Rehovot, Michal J. had already put their small children to bed and was beginning to wind down when the Color Red incoming rocket alert siren activated at 8:20 p.m.

It’s an incredibly loud sound, a rising wail, and it can be really frightening for someone who has never heard it before.

“Michal quickly rushed all the kids out of bed and down to the shelter, baby Chaya in one arm and Shloime in the other,” her husband Eli said. “They heard some distant thuds and booms and came back upstairs safe and sound,” with the two older children initially excited by the exercise, but 2-year-old Shloime “rather shaken and clingy.”

Eli arrived home from work a few minutes later, and went to relieve a friend’s babysitter who was “ordered home by her mother. What a mess!” he wrote on his Facebook page. He later added that his own older son could not fall asleep following the experience, and both older children came to their parents in the middle of the night, saying they were scared.

“This morning Shloime kept saying, over and over, ‘When we hear the noise, we go to the Miklat (shelter) and then we’re safe,” he added.

“To think that this is our family’s trauma from just one siren, when there are kids in Sderot and the surrounding area that have grown up with this their whole lives… What kind of normal country would allow her citizens to live in such terror without doing anything about it?? Is there any precedent for such a thing in world history?”

Across the country, in a Jerusalem suburb, small children in another family slept through the entire experience, but woke briefly to express annoyance at being moved from their beds. For their parents, however, it wasn’t as simple of course.

“I was out walking with the wife and we luckily stopped to talk with a neighbor a few houses away,” related Steve L. “The siren went off and we ran for our lives. As soon as we reached our house, we grabbed each kid out of various beds – we have four, ranging in age from a year to 9 – and carried them to the bomb shelter in our home.”

Steve said that he realized his children were “heavier than I remember.” As did Eli, he hit the social media when the incident was over to post about his experience.

His children, however, were “annoyed the siren woke them and that we made them switch beds. They went back to sleep.” He added that the bomb shelter “gets very hot when the window and door are closed. I was annoyed that I didn’t grab my computer too. I felt stuck there, that I couldn’t go out. But it’s not our first missile run.”

In the Gaza Belt community of Sderot, sadly, residents have endured so many rocket attacks that a fortified playground was donated to the city, where children can play safely in what is essentially a mammoth bomb shelter.

The sun peeked out just long enough Thursday afternoon for Israelis to see the flooding caused by the “sound and light show” they endured over Wednesday night.

Cracks of thunder and long streaks of lightning interspersed with the downpour that sent sheets of rain down through the skies over Israel, drenching the entire country.

Downpours at this time of year are unusual but not unheard of, meteorologist said. By mid-afternoon Thursday, the skies in southern Israel were once again filled with leaden clouds that appeared once more to be pregnant with rain. It was not clear whether in fact more precipitation was on the way; the forecast calls for the possibility for rain, continuing even into as Friday morning.

Rain is considered a blessing in this part of the world no matter when it arrives. There has been a 2.5-centimeter (one inch) rise in the water level of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) as a result of the record-breaking downpour.

But some may have seen it as a mixed blessing: Fifteen members of the Bnei Akiva youth group were trapped in a southern Israeli parking lot due to the flooding. They were rescued by special teams and evacuated from the scene by helicopter. IDF vehicles prepared to enter the area to help evacuate remaining hikers who had been touring in the area.

Bezeq phone lines were still down around the Dead Sea area at midday and service was sporadic at best.

Cell phone companies were scrambling to restore service in the central region. In the Jerusalem area, Cellcom customers reported all kinds of difficulties in placing their calls and in sending text messages Thursday afternoon.

The company had not formulated a response to the complaints by mid-afternoon.

Further south, near Eilat, Route 90 was still closed to traffic by late afternoon due to flash flooding that swamped the road after a night of thunder and lightning that swept Israel from north to south. Route 31, which had been closed earlier in the day, is now open.